Plans to forge a joint energy strategy for the 25-nation European Union will also be high on the agenda of the two-day gathering in Brussels.

While the United States and Japan are enjoying an economic resurgence, much of Europe is still struggling to stimulate growth, with latest figures for last year putting economic expansion in the eurozone at a paltry 1.3 percent.

EU leaders hope to use the Brussels summit to galvanize efforts to push through reforms such as flexible jobs rules and ever-greater cross-border competition.

"We need to create more job opportunities, particularly for young people trying to enter the market," said European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso on the eve of the summit.

But europhiles, already depressed by last year's French and Dutch rejections of the EU's first-ever constitution, now lament that the bloc is drifting towards greater protectionism in national economic policy-making.